US President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders aiming at lowering prices that Americans pay for prescription drugs as he faces an uphill re-election battle and criticism over his handling of the corona virus pandemic.
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US
President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders aiming at
lowering prices that Americans pay for prescription drugs as he faces an uphill
re-election battle and criticism over his handling of the corona virus pandemic.
One
order would allow for the legal importation of cheaper prescription drugs from
countries like Canada, while another would require discounts from drug
companies now captured by middlemen to be passed on to patients, Trump said.
Another
measure seeks to lower insulin costs while a fourth, which might not need to be
implemented if talks with drug companies are successful, would require Medicare
to purchase drugs at the same price that other countries pay, Trump said.
Executives
of top drug companies have requested a meeting to discuss how they can lower
drug prices, the president added.
“We
are putting patients over lobbyists, senior citizens before special interests,
and we’re putting America first,” Trump said before signing the documents.
Trump,
under fire for surging corona virus cases in the United States and beset by
decreasing poll numbers ahead of Nov. 3 elections, had previously asked
Congress to rein in drug costs.
On
Friday, he also said that the White House would propose a healthcare bill soon
but offered few details.
Drugmakers
often negotiate rebates or discounts on their list prices in exchange for
favorable treatment from insurers and other healthcare payers. As a result,
insurers and covered patients rarely pay the full list price of a drug.
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